text:
Request to Amend Accountability Plan – Texas – NCLB Policy Letters to States
July 6, 2009
The Honorable Robert Scott
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress
Austin, Texas 78701
Dear Commissioner Scott:
On behalf of Secretary Duncan, I want to thank you for your hard work in implementing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). As you may know, the Secretary is traveling the country and listening to officials in states and school districts, as well as other stakeholders, talk about the ways in which the ESEA can be improved. These conversations will inform the next reauthorization of the statute. In the meantime, we will push towards our reform goals under the authority of, and in accordance with, the existing statute and regulations.
I am writing in response to Texas' request to amend its state accountability plan under Title I of the ESEA. Following discussions between the Department and your staff, Texas made two changes to its accountability plan, which are now included in the amended plan that Texas submitted to the Department on June 12, 2009. I am pleased to approve Texas' amended plan, which we will post on the Department's website. A summary of Texas' requested amendments is enclosed with this letter. As you know, any further requests to amend Texas' accountability plan must be submitted to the Department for review and approval as required by section 1111(f)(2) of Title I of the ESEA.
Please also be aware that approval of Texas' accountability plan for Title I, including the amendments approved herein, does not indicate that the plan complies with Federal civil rights requirements, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
I am confident that Texas will continue to advance its efforts to hold schools and school districts accountable for the achievement of all students. If you need any additional assistance to implement the standards, assessment, and accountability provisions of the ESEA, please do not hesitate to contact email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com of my staff.
Joseph C. Conaty
cc: Governor Rick Perry
Criss Cloudt
Shannon Housson
Amendments to Texas's Accountability Plan
The following is a summary of Texas' amendment requests. Please refer to the Department's website https://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/stateplans03/index.html for Texas' complete accountability plan.
Acceptable amendments
The following amendments are aligned with the statute and regulations.
Including all schools and districts in adequate yearly progress (AYP) determinations (Element 1.2, 1.5, and 1.6)
Revision: Texas will exclude the results of students attending a school that is designated as a Texas Youth Commission (TYC) or Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC) campus from district AYP determinations for the district in which the campus is located. Such campuses will receive a school-level AYP determination and will be included in state-level AYP determinations.
Revision: Due to the impact of Hurricanes Ike, Dolly, and Gustave and Tropical Storm Edouard, the state and its districts may implement the delay provisions in sections 1116(b)(7)(D) and 1116(c)(10)(F) of the ESEA for districts or campuses that were closed for ten or more instructional days due to these natural disasters and that are located in a county designated by FEMA as a disaster area that qualifies for individual or public assistance. In addition, any school or district not closed for 10 or more days that did not make AYP due to the students in the school or district displaced by Hurricane Ike will also implement the delay provisions. Accordingly, Texas will implement school or district improvement activities for these districts and campuses as follows:
If the districts or schools made AYP based on assessments administered in 2008–09, they would be given their earned AYP designation.
If the districts or schools did not make AYP based on assessments administered in 2008–09:
If these districts and schools were identified for improvement in the 2008–09 school year, they would continue with their existing school improvement identification for the 2009–10 school year and offer the same level of interventions.
If the district or school misses AYP in the 2009–10 school year, it would advance on the improvement timeline in the 2010–11 school year.
Districts or schools that did not make AYP for the first time based on the 2007–08 assessments and thus had no 2008–09 school improvement identification would not advance into improvement in 2009–10; if they do not make AYP in 2009–10, they would enter school improvement in 2010–11.
Schools or districts in improvement that made AYP for the first time based upon assessments administered in 2007–08 and that made AYP in 2008–09 would also exit school improvement.
Schools and districts in improvement that made AYP for the first time based upon assessments administered in 2007–08, did not make AYP in 2008–09, and made AYP in 2009–10 would exit school improvement.
Including a growth model in AYP determinations (Element 3.2)
Revision: As approved by the Department through a flexibility agreement, Texas will implement a growth model as a means of determining AYP for schools and districts. For details regarding the proposal, including the approval letter, refer to: www.ed.govhttps://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/growthmodel/tx/index.html.


text:
Pioneer has announced an entry-level addition to their range of Serato DJ controllers, by the name of the DDJ-SB.
The new addition to its family is more lightweight and compact, with the same degree of intuitive control over the popular DJ software as its predecessors, the more premium controllers DDJ-SX and DDJ-SR.
Many of the latter models' functions remain, though the DDJ-SB has the kudos of introducing a new feature: Filter Fade adds a high-pass filter to the crossfader, theoretically helping DJs to create smoother transitions.
Key features of the DDJ-SB include:
- Plug-and-play control of Serato DJ Intro (free) and Serato DJ (paid upgrade)
- Access a host of cues, loops, FX and samples
- Filter Fade (new addition)
- Eight Performance Pads
- Manual high/low pass filters on each channel
- Dedicated website with interactive tutorial videos
- USB powered
- Pro-DJ design and build
- MIDI compatible
- Built-in sound card
Bundled with Serato DJ Intro, the DDJ-SB costs £249 and will be available from January 2014.
For more information, visit Pioneer DJ on Facebook.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Stephen Decatur Middle School recently congratulated Kelly Marx, winner of the Space Camp Essay Contest. She won a one-week scholarship with airfare to attend Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., an official Space Camp flight suit and $100 in spending money. Hammond's attendance at the camp earned her school the scholarship to grant one student the same opportunity. She is the daughter of Jean and Kurt Marx of Berlin.


text:
Business Valuation Services for Mandeville, Louisiana:
If you own a business, want to protect your wealth, determine how much an asset is worth or dispute lost wages and expense, you will, at some point, need the services of a valuation professional. We provide business valuation and lost wage and expense services and reports to business owners, CEOs, attorneys, CPA's, and financial planning professionals for the following purposes:
Estate and Gift Taxes
Charitable Contributions
Mergers and Acquisitions
Litigation and Disputes
Marital Dissolution (Divorce)
Shareholder Buy/Sell Agreements for Succession Planning
Capital Raising
Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)
Our reports are prepared in accordance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), as promulgated by The Appraisal Foundation and the Code of Professional Conduct and Statements on Standards for Consulting Services promulgated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Business valuation is a complex process, requiring broad knowledge of accounting, finance, economics and business, expert application of recognized valuation methodologies and adherence to strict professional standards.
We will first seek to understand the Client's needs and that of his advisors (attorneys) and recommend an appropriate valuation solution. If a valuation report is required, there are several levels of assurance, depending on the client's need.
An Appraisal Report (also known as a full opinion) is most appropriate for large gifts of fractional interests, estate valuations, ESOPs, sale of a business, and matters regarding litigation. An independent appraisal is fully supported with market based studies and empirical evidence of value.
A Restricted Use Appraisal Report contains all of the required elements of an appraisal report, but is more limited in scope. The scope limitations are those elements of appraisal that are not particularly relevant to the business under appraisal.
Limited Opinion of Value: This appraisal is a valuation estimate based on all valuation methods appropriate to the business. Under the scope limitations, it may not contain information on the national and regional economies, industry analyses, and comparative financial information.
Calculation of Value: This is a business valuation report that does not contain an opinion of value. It is also known as a consultative report and is an excellent planning tool. It is a limited report that is based on the economics of the subject and may provide value ranges.
Lost Wage and Excess Expense Reports: These reports used information provided by doctors and attorneys to calculate the amount of money lost by plaintiffs in civil action proceedings.
Whatever its purpose, a business valuation is a widely used discipline that can play a key role in achieving your financial goals and objectives.
Tax Accounting and Business Consulting for Mandeville, Louisiana
Industry Specific Accounting
Mandeville CPA Services


text:
Al Qaeda rises in West Africa
| Timbuktu, Mali
At a remote training camp in northern Mali, US Army counterinsurgency specialists are teaching 160 Malian troops combat skills they can use to defend their country against attacks by Al Qaeda.
And they may have to call upon that training sooner rather than later.
A shadowy group called Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has busily set up shop in northern Mali, US military commanders and security experts say, passing easily through the porous borders of Mali, Algeria, Mauritania, and Niger to carry out kidnappings of foreign aid workers and tourists. AQIM also attacked a Malian military convoy in July, killing several troops, and was implicated in the assassination of a Malian military intelligence officer one week after killing a British tourist in a group it had been holding for nearly six months. (Four other hostages had been released; one was still held at press time.)
As one of the poorest countries in the world, with just a few thousand troops to patrol a vast territory the size of Texas and California put together, Mali has its work cut out for it. But despite the growing number of kidnappings and attacks, many Malians say the Al Qaeda threat is being overblown by both France and the United States. They worry that warning tourists not to visit could kill the economy in parts of the north and that a US troop presence could attract even more Al Qaeda attacks.
"We are not against the training of the Malian Army by the Americans," says Fatoumata Maiga, a women's rights activist in Mali's capital, Bamako. "But we don't want the American Army to be present here. We see that around the world, wherever the Americans are, there is a temptation for Al Qaeda to be there."
Still, even Malians who doubt the presence of Al Qaeda admit that the vast terrain and the lack of resources mean that there is little Mali could do to defend itself.
"We have nothing but desert, and anybody who wants to come here can come here," says Col. Adghaimar Ag Alhoussainy, a Malian military commander based in Timbuktu. "Mali is a very poor country. We need many things to fight Al Qaeda, and it is very difficult to fight Al Qaeda."
Rising pace of attacks here
US Army officials with the Africa Command (AFRICOM) in Stuttgart, Germany, say that the rising pace of the attacks seems to be spurring Mali to take the Al Qaeda threat seriously.
"They realized this is becoming a negative effect, not only for Mali, it was also forming a regional effect," says Lt. Col. James Woods, operations commander for Operation Enduring Freedom, Trans-Sahel region, in a phone interview from his base in Stuttgart. "We have assisted the Malians in building their defense capabilities to make their Army more professional, capable of sustaining itself and capable of thwarting militant external organizations."
AQIM's track record has been sufficient cause, US State Department officials say, to warn all Americans – even aid workers – to leave Mali's northern regions and avoid upcoming tourist spectacles such as the Festival Au Desert music concert set for Jan. 7-9.
"We consider the threat a very serious one, and people who travel to the three northern states are in serious risk of being kidnapped," says Peter Barlerin, deputy chief of mission for the US Embassy in Bamako.
Many in Mali's north are concerned that the Western warnings could cripple the region's tourism-dependent economy and affect key aid operations.
That's one reason Malian officials stress that the warnings might be exaggerated.
President Amadou Toure, after the Nov. 25 kidnapping of Frenchman Pierre Camatte, told the French newspaper Le Monde, "Mali is no more dangerous than certain French neighborhoods."
On the streets of the northern city of Timbuktu, there are few signs of danger. The few Western tourists who have ventured to this city to visit its ancient libraries of manuscripts, to take camel treks into the desert, or to hear the blues-like songs of its traditional Tuareg and Songhay musicians, find themselves quickly surrounded in the marketplace by merchants desperate to sell trinkets. But aside from aggressive haggling, the city is calm.
Still, aid groups aren't taking their safety in the region for granted.
"I can't judge whether this is exaggerated or not," says Riborg Knudsen, country director for Norwegian Church Aid in Bamako. "But the risks of what would happen if a staffer was kidnapped would be so devastating, not just to the person, but for the whole project, we wouldn't want to risk that."
US support 'is a good thing'
The problem of Al Qaeda will be solved permanently if the Malian government begins to address the situation in the north more directly, says Ibrahim Ag Idbartanat, a moderate Tuareg leader who helped negotiate the end of the bloody Tuareg rebellion in the 1990s and now runs a group to combat slavery in northern Mali.
"The Army has to be trained, and US support for our troops is a good thing," says Mr. Idbartanat. "The solution for the Salafists [radical Islamists] is not to ignore them. If you ignore them, they will be fixed in the national conscience and it will be very difficult to get them out."
At his camp in the center of the city, Col. Gaston Damango welcomes the assistance of the US military in providing communications equipment, all-terrain vehicles, and counterinsurgency training for 160 of his men at a military base in Gao. But he seems bewildered by American concerns about an Al Qaeda threat here.
"The Americans have a lot of fear for Al Qaeda. They think the Salafists are here in Timbuktu, and it's not true," says Damango. "If you go far from here, you will find nothing but poverty. But the people don't hate the government because of the poverty. The people know we are here to protect them."


text:
Used 2023 Ford Explorer RWD ST-Line
- Exterior Color: Star White Metallic Tri-Coat
- Interior Color: Ebony
- Body Style: SUV
- Transmission: 10-Speed Automatic w/OD
- Stock: PGA65213
- Mileage: 4,053
- Engine: Intercooled Turbo Premium Unleaded I-4 2.3 L/140
- City MPG:
- Highway MPG:
Anti Lock Braking SystemAnti Lock Braking System
Cruise ControlCruise Control
Adaptive CruiseAdaptive Cruise
Backup Camera / AssistBackup Camera / Assist
Blind Spot MonitorBlind Spot Monitor
Cross-Traffic AlertCross-Traffic Alert
Back-Up CameraBack-Up Camera
Multi-Zone A/CMulti-Zone A/C
Keyless EntryKeyless Entry
Third Row SeatingThird Row Seating
Power Seat(s)Power Seat(s)
Premium SoundPremium Sound
Satellite RadioSatellite Radio
Heated SeatsHeated Seats
Rain Sensing WipersRain Sensing Wipers
Steering Wheel ControlsSteering Wheel Controls
Remote StartRemote Start
Power LiftgatePower Liftgate
Keyless StartKeyless Start
Power Folding MirrorsPower Folding Mirrors
Lane Departure WarningLane Departure Warning
Lane Keeping AssistLane Keeping Assist
Smartphone IntegrationSmartphone Integration
Installed Options
- 17.9 Gal. Fuel Tank
- 4-Wheel Disc Brakes w/4-Wheel ABS, Front And Rear Vented Discs, Brake Assist, Hill Hold Control and Electric Parking Brake
- Battery w/Run Down Protection
- Engine: 2.3L EcoBoost I-4 -inc: auto start-stop technology
- Gas-Pressurized Shock Absorbers
- Multi-Link Rear Suspension w/Coil Springs
- Rear-Wheel Drive
- Strut Front Suspension w/Coil Springs
- Transmission w/Driver Selectable Mode
- 3.58 Non-Limited-Slip Rear Axle Ratio
- 50 State Emissions System Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) system is standard equipment for vehicles with the 3.3L Ti-VCT V6 FFV engine.
- Electric Power-Assist Speed-Sensing Steering
- Front And Rear Anti-Roll Bars
- Quasi-Dual Stainless Steel Exhaust w/Chrome Tailpipe Finisher
- Regenerative Alternator
- Towing Equipment -inc: Trailer Sway Control
- Transmission: 10-Speed Automatic
- 2 LCD Monitors In The Front
- 4 12V DC Power Outlets
- 8-Way Driver Seat
- Analog Appearance
- Bucket Folding Captain Front Facing Manual Reclining Fold Forward Seatback ActiveX/Miko Simulated Suede/Leatherette Rear Seat w/Manual Fore/Aft
- Cargo Area Concealed Storage
- Carpet Floor Trim
- Compass
- Day-Night Auto-Dimming Rearview Mirror
- Digital Signal Processor
- Driver / Passenger And Rear Door Bins
- Driver Foot Rest
- Fade-To-Off Interior Lighting
- FOB Controls -inc: Cargo Access and Remote Start
- Front And Rear Map Lights
- Full Carpet Floor Covering -inc: Carpet Front And Rear Floor Mats
- Full Floor Console w/Covered Storage, Mini Overhead Console w/Storage and 4 12V DC Power Outlets
- Heated Leather Steering Wheel
- HVAC -inc: Underseat Ducts and Headliner/Pillar Ducts
- Integrated Roof Antenna
- Keypad
- Manual Adjustable Rear Head Restraints
- Outside Temp Gauge
- Power 1st Row Windows w/Driver And Passenger 1-Touch Up/Down
- Power Rear Windows and Fixed 3rd Row Windows
- Radio w/Seek-Scan, Clock, Steering Wheel Controls, Radio Data System and Internal Memory
- Rear Cupholder
- Redundant Digital Speedometer
- Remote Keyless Entry w/Integrated Key Transmitter, Illuminated Entry, Illuminated Ignition Switch and Panic Button
- Securilock Anti-Theft Ignition (pats) Immobilizer
- Streaming Audio
- Trip Computer
- Voice Activated Dual Zone Front Automatic Air Conditioning
- 2 Seatback Storage Pockets
- 6-Way Passenger Seat
- Air Filtration
- Bluetooth Wireless Phone Connectivity
- Bucket Front Seats w/Cloth Back Material
- Cargo Space Lights
- Cloth Door Trim Insert
- Cruise Control w/Steering Wheel Controls
- Delayed Accessory Power
- Distance Pacing w/Traffic Stop-Go
- Driver And Passenger Visor Vanity Mirrors w/Driver And Passenger Illumination, Driver And Passenger Auxiliary Mirror
- Driver Information Center
- Fixed 50-50 Bench ActiveX/Miko Simulated Suede/Leatherette 3rd Row Seat Front, Manual Fold Into Floor, 2 Manual and Adjustable Head Restraints
- FordPass Connect -inc: 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot connects up to 10 devices w/wireless data trial that begins upon AT&T activation and expires at the end of 3 months or when 3GB of data is used, whichever comes first, but cannot extend beyond the trial subscription period for remote features, To activate, go to www.att.com/ford, remotely start, lock and unlock vehicle, schedule specific times to remotely start vehicle, locate parked vehicle and check vehicle status (FordPass Connect, the Ford Pass App, and Complimentary Connected Services are required for remote features (see FordPass terms for details), Connected Service and features depend on compatible AT&T network availability, Evolving technology/cellular networks/vehicle capability may limit functionality and prevent operation of connected features, Connected services excludes Wi-Fi hotspot.), Note: Ford Telematics and data services prep included for fleet only: FordPass Connect 4G Wi-Fi modem provides data to support telematics and data services including but not limited to vehicle location, speed, idle time, fuel, vehicle diagnostics and maintenance alerts, Device enables telematics services through Ford or authorized providers, Activate at www.fleet.ford.com or call 833-FCS-Ford, (833-327-3673)
- Front Center Armrest and Rear Seat Mounted Armrest Outboard Only
- Full Cloth Headliner
- Gauges -inc: Speedometer, Odometer, Engine Coolant Temp, Tachometer, Oil Level, Trip Odometer and Trip Computer
- Htd ActiveX Trimmed Captain's Chairs w/Miko Insert -inc: red stitching, 10-way power driver (power function for tilt, lumbar and recline), 8-way power passenger (power function for lumbar and recline) and 4-way manually adjustable driver and front passenger head restraints
- Illuminated Front Cupholder
- Interior Trim -inc: Piano Black/Metal-Look Instrument Panel Insert, Piano Black/Metal-Look Door Panel Insert, Piano Black Console Insert and Chrome/Metal-Look Interior Accents
- Locking Glove Box
- Manual Tilt/Telescoping Steering Column
- Perimeter Alarm
- Power Door Locks w/Autolock Feature
- Proximity Key For Doors And Push Button Start
- Radio: B&O Sound System by Bang & Olufsen -inc: MP3 capability, 12 speakers, subwoofer, HD Radio, speed-compensated volume and SiriusXM, Service is not available in Alaska and Hawaii, All SiriusXM services require a subscription, sold separately by SiriusXM after the trial period, Your SiriusXM service will automatically stop at the end of your trial unless you decide to subscribe, If you decide to continue service, the subscription plan chosen will automatically renew and be charged according to your chosen payment method at the then-current rates, Fees and taxes apply, See the SiriusXM Customer Agreement & Privacy Policy at https://www.siriusxm.com/ www.siriusxm.com for full terms and how to cancel, which includes online methods or calling 1-866-635-2349, Available in the 48 contiguous United States, D.C, and Puerto Rico (w/coverage limits and capable receiver), Visit http://www.siriusxm.com/FAQS for most current service area information, Availability of some services and features is subject to device capabilities and location restrictions, All fees, content and features are subject to change, SiriusXM, Pandora and all related logos are trademarks of Sirius XM Radio (subscription required) Inc, and its respective subsidiaries
- Rear HVAC w/Separate Controls
- Regular Amplifier
- Remote Releases -Inc: Power Cargo Access
- Smart Device Remote Engine Start
- SYNC 3 Communications & Entertainment System -inc: enhanced voice recognition, 8" LCD capacitive touchscreen in center stack w/swipe capability, AppLink, 911 Assist, Apple Car Play and Android Auto compatibility and 1 "A" and 1 "C" USB ports in the media hub,
- Trunk/Hatch Auto-Latch
- Voice-Activated Touchscreen Navigation System -inc: pinch-to-zoom capability, SiriusXM Traffic and Travel Link (subscription required), Note: SiriusXM Traffic and Travel Link (subscription required), SiriusXM Traffic and Travel Link (subscription required) service is not available in Alaska or Hawaii, After your trial period ends, Sirius XM audio and data services each require a subscription sold separately, or as a package, by SiriusXM Radio (subscription required) Inc, See SiriusXM customer agreement for complete terms at www.siriusxm.com, All fees and programming subject to change, Trial subscriptions not available in Alaska and Hawaii
- ABS And Driveline Traction Control
- Aerial View Camera System
- Back-Up Camera w/Washer
- Collision Mitigation-Front
- Driver Monitoring-Alert
- Dual Stage Driver And Passenger Seat-Mounted Side Airbags
- Front Camera w/Washer
- Lane Keeping Alert Lane Departure Warning
- Left Side Camera
- Outboard Front Lap And Shoulder Safety Belts -inc: Height Adjusters and Pretensioners
- Rear Child Safety Locks
- Right Side Camera
- Side Impact Beams
- AdvanceTrac w/Roll Stability Control Electronic Stability Control (ESC) And Roll Stability Control (RSC)
- Airbag Occupancy Sensor
- BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) Blind Spot
- Driver And Passenger Knee Airbag
- Dual Stage Driver And Passenger Front Airbags
- Evasion Assist
- Lane Centering
- Lane Keeping Alert Lane Keeping Assist
- Mykey System -inc: Top Speed Limiter, Audio Volume Limiter, Early Low Fuel Warning, Programmable Sound Chimes and Beltminder w/Audio Mute
- Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection and Cross-Traffic Alert
- Reverse Sensing System Rear Parking Sensors
- Safety Canopy System Curtain 1st, 2nd And 3rd Row Airbags
- Tire Specific Low Tire Pressure Warning
- Autolamp Auto On/Off Aero-Composite Led Low/High Beam Auto High-Beam Daytime Running Lights Preference Setting Headlamps w/Delay-Off
- Black Grille
- Black Side Windows Trim, Black Front Windshield Trim and Black Rear Window Trim
- Body-Colored Front Bumper w/Black Bumper Insert
- Clearcoat Paint
- Deep Tinted Glass
- Front Fog Lamps
- Headlights-Automatic Highbeams
- LED Brakelights
- Perimeter/Approach Lights
- Speed Sensitive Rain Detecting Variable Intermittent Wipers
- Tailgate/Rear Door Lock Included w/Power Door Locks
- Wheels: 20" Machined Aluminum w/Painted Pockets
- Black Bodyside Insert, Black Bodyside Cladding and Black Wheel Well Trim
- Black Power Heated Side Mirrors w/Power Folding
- Body-Colored Door Handles
- Body-Colored Rear Bumper w/Black Rub Strip/Fascia Accent and Black Bumper Insert
- Compact Spare Tire Mounted Inside Under Cargo
- Fixed Rear Window w/Fixed Interval Wiper, Heated Wiper Park and Defroster
- Galvanized Steel/Aluminum Panels
- Laminated Glass
- Lip Spoiler
- Power Liftgate Rear Cargo Access
- Steel Spare Wheel
- Tires: P255/55R20 AS BSW
Although every reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained on this site, absolute accuracy cannot be guaranteed. This site, and all information and materials appearing on it, are presented to the user "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. All vehicles are subject to prior sale. Price does not include applicable government fees and taxes, finance charges, electronic filing charges, and emission testing charges. ‡Vehicles shown at different locations are not currently in our inventory (Not in Stock) but can be made available to you at our location within a reasonable date from the time of your request, not to exceed one week. All vehicles are equipped with Etch and Safe link $1,495.


text:
Cost Analysis
Welcome to Cost Analysis
Our mission is to assist the University of Alaska in maintaining a high level of accountability and stewardship by acting as the cost accounting specialists for the university system.
We strive to reduce the risk of noncompliance with federal cost accounting standards through leadership, training, and direction in development of the university's cost accounting policies and practices.
We make every effort to maximize the university's facilities and administrative recovery while ensuring compliance with state, federal and university rules and regulations.


text:
James Holmes -- Obsessed with NON-VIOLENT Video Game Guitar Hero
James Holmes OBSESSED With Non-Violent Video Game
The man who slaughtered a dozen people and wounded 59 was obsessed with a video game that was anything but violent ... Guitar Hero.
We've learned ... one of James Holmes' classmates at the University of California at Riverside played Guitar Hero with the shooter all the time, and "for hours."
The male student is telling friends he is "shocked," never having had a clue that Holmes had a propensity for violence.
It's an interesting side note, because people with violent tendencies often act them out in various ways, and video games are definitely an outlet.
Another classmate of Holmes tells TMZ Holmes was never a trouble-maker. The two of them were in virtually every class together yet he was so quiet she hardly noticed him.


text:
IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-07-17
<antrik> Reventlov: this is the so-called "firmlink issue" -- though AFAIK
it doesn't actually apply to firmlinks ;-)
<antrik> the problem is that any user can in theory create and set up a
special translator, which will redirect to another directory, without any
indication that it's a link
<braunr> but this doesn't supersede the file system permissions, does it ?
<antrik> as a result, if someone runs rm -r on the directory containing
that translator (which could be a world-writable one such as tmp), the rm
-r will descend into the directory, and thus remove it with the
permissions of the user who ran the rm -- not the one who set up the
<braunr> oh i see, when tmp gets cleared by a script run as root, your home
is deleted ?
<antrik> right
<antrik> of course, the workaround is trivial: just don't follow
translators set up by untrusted users
<antrik> (which is precisely the default policy for FUSE BTW)
<braunr> which is the general policy around memory managers in general
<antrik> it's just nobody cared to implement this change
<youpi> antrik: does rm use O_NOTRANS ?
<antrik> youpi: I'm pretty sure it doesn't
<youpi> so it's still an issue for now
<antrik> yes, it's still an issue. it's just not a really fundamental
problem as macrus claimed it to be... [sigh]
<youpi> well, fix rm and then you can say it's not an issue any more
<braunr> does it only concern rm ?
<antrik> youpi: rm is just an example. the problem is much more generic: a
malicious translator can do all kinds of harm
<youpi> sure
<youpi> it's just about tools not blindly following things
<antrik> the only simple and effective answer is not to follow translators
from untrusted users by default
<youpi> antrik: but then /dev/null can't be non-root
<braunr> depends how "untrusted users" are identified
<antrik> we discussed a more sophisticated solution with cfhammer, that
would change the way reauthentication works in lookups, and should
prevent these kinds of permission escalation without preventing desirable
uses... but it still wouldn't address DOS issues, so it would be only a
partial solution
<antrik> youpi: why should it?
<manuel> (http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2009-11/msg00231.html
for the most sophisticated solution)
<antrik> braunr: well, currently the permission system generally trusts
root and the own user. implementing something else might be tricky... not
<antrik> manuel: yes, that's precisely the discussion I was referring
to... thanks for the link :-)
<youpi> antrik: depends what you mean by "follow"
<youpi> what DOS are you thinking of?
<antrik> youpi: a translator can generate endless amounts of "data"; a
translator can generate endless recursive directory tress; or it can just
never return from RPCs... all things that can do pretty much harm
depending on the situation
<antrik> filesystem clients generally trust filesystem operations to be
safe -- and that's just not true anymore with filesystems run by
untrusted users
<antrik> (be it Hurd translators or FUSE modules)
<antrik> this is a fundamental problem as marcus and neal rightly observed
<antrik> I just don't agree about the seriousness of the consequences
<antrik> I don't think not following untrusted translators really looses us
<youpi> EDOOMANYNEGATIONS
<youpi> s/D/T
<youpi> again, what do you mean by "following" ?
<youpi> always use O_NOTRANS ?
<tschwinge> Yes, I think.
<youpi> or never accept a REAUTH ?
<youpi> O_NOTRANS would mean ftpfs running as root, brrr
<youpi> it's not really true that clients always trust filesystem
<youpi> the "not returning" case for instance, also appears with nfs mounts
<antrik> no, not always use O_NOTRANS. just be more selective about what
translators to follow. specifically, don't follow translators set up by
untrusted users. (unless explicitly requested)
<antrik> you can think of it as O_NO_UNTRUSTED_TRANS
<antrik> note that if you run ftpfs under a special user, who is not root
but trusted by root, this would still be fine. I hope it shouldn't be too
hard to implement that...
<antrik> as for NFS: clients generally do *not* try to catch possible
failures. if the NFS server doesn't return, the clients hang forever. but
the NFS server is generally trusted, so this is not much of a problem
<antrik> BTW, I guess not accepting reauth from untrusted translators would
also fix the privilege escalations (similar to the proposed modified
reauth mechanism, only more invasive); but it wouldn't fix the DoS issues
<ArneBab> antrik: would that also be an issue for a run translator, which
runs a command on read?
<ArneBab> youpi: couldn't ftpfs have root drop priviledges?
<ArneBab> like a runas trans
<ArneBab> essertially su for translators to drop privs
<antrik> ArneBab: hm... if we can make sure that the translator was started
as root, and dropped privileges later, I guess that would be fine... not
sure how hard that is
<antrik> ArneBab: but I think it would be more elegant to start the
translators as trusted non-root users in the first place
<ArneBab> then i ph.avme to trust them
<ArneBab> deper hierarchy
<ArneBab> deeper
<ArneBab> but essertially the same
<ArneBab> if then someone mounted his home himself, would I be able to read
<ArneBab> /home/user
<ArneBab> antrik: if not, that would be really non-nice
<antrik> ArneBab: sorry, but we simply *can't* trust a translator set up by
an untrusted user. if he controls it, he can make it behave maliciously
<antrik> we could in theory try to come up with a proxy that catches
problematic semantics, and presents a "safe" variant to the actual
clients... but that would be not-trivial, and I'm not sure how safe it
can be made
<antrik> ArneBab: of course you should always have the option to explicitly
say that you want to trust the translator, if you think the user doesn't
have malicious intentions :-)
<antrik> (I think nsmux would be a good way to achieve this...)
<braunr> unless it's really really necessary (and i don't see why it would
be), no design should force a process to start with privileges and drop
<braunr> having a set of trusted users (e.g. uid < 100) is a nice solution
to the problem imho
<braunr> or part of a group, 100 is a non-hurdish static limit
<ArneBab> What user is running a passive translator?
<braunr> passive translators are a pain for such things :/
<braunr> a command line and attach point are not enough to persistently
encode the execution context of the tranlator
<ArneBab> What user is running a passive translator?
<ArneBab> sorry
<braunr> the one owning the inode if i'm right
<ArneBab> so actually the orly problem are recursive commands, which also
are a problem with plain symlinks?
<braunr> i'm not sure
<ArneBab> Is thene any havoc a translator can wreak that a symlink can't?
<braunr> well, as symlinks are translators, if a translator can damage
something, a symlink may too
<ArneBab> but not in Linux?
<braunr> err
<braunr> there are no translator in linux
<ArneBab> → commands could just treat translators as symlinks
<ArneBab> jepp, but it has symlinks
<braunr> no, this would defeat the purpose of translators :p
<braunr> and it's just no doable
<braunr> you would have recursion everywhere
<ArneBab> why?
<braunr> because every file access is sent to a translator
<ArneBab> hm, yes
<braunr> and we don't want to change commands
<braunr> we want to fix the design
<ArneBab> → only untrusted trans
<braunr> rather than considering them as symlinks, just consider them as
untrusted translators
<braunr> this doesn't change the semantics, only the action of accessing a
node or not
<braunr> but as antrik said, this has to be done :)
<braunr> the real problem would simplify to "how do you know if a
translator can be trusted", which is a matter of selecting the righ
identification strategy
<braunr> one strong strategy would be to have a port right copied to each
trusted task
<braunr> i wonder if one of the special ports could be used for that
<braunr> or if we have to add a new one
<ArneBab> so when I login, I would give port rights to trusted uids?
<braunr> no
<braunr> when a trusted translator starts a passive translator attached on
a node owned by root, it would copy its trusted right to the new task
<braunr> much like the device master port is passed to root tasks
<braunr> but i'm not sure this mechanism can be safely used to know if the
translator can be trusted
<braunr> the translator would be able to actively call services requiring
this capability
<braunr> but i guess client tasks would have to ask for the translator to
prove it's trusted
<braunr> which is a problem because the issue is to know if it can be
trusted before asking it anything
<braunr> another way is to register trusted tasks in another server, and
ask this server if the target translator is trusted
<braunr> i"m pretty sure these strategies already exist in some form on the
<ArneBab> hm
<braunr> does someone here have an idea why BSD-derived VMs account wiring
information at the high level vm_map instead of storing it in lower level
vm_page ?
<ArneBab> braunr: a translator anywhene in the FS can only be there, if the
creator had sufficient rights to the node, right?
<ArneBab> so wouldn't it suffice to check the access rights?
<braunr> no
<braunr> ismple example: /dev/null is owned by root, but you have read
access to it
<braunr> hm that may not answer your question actually
<braunr> what access right would you check ?
<braunr> if someone creates a node with rights 777, do you still want to
access it ?
<ArneBab> no
<braunr> simple enough i hope :)
<ArneBab> arg…
<ArneBab> if I can write to it, I can give it a translaton
<ArneBab> translator
<braunr> but this doesn't tell you it can be trusted
<ArneBab> well, actually: yes, access, but not recurse
<braunr> the owner sets his own rights, and you can't trust the owner
<braunr> unless it's root, but you don't want all your translators to run
as root
<ArneBab> it can act as its owner?
<ArneBab> yes
<braunr> well, as i told you, a passive translator is started by its parent
translator (the one managing the file systeme node it's attached to)
<braunr> the new translator runs as the user owning the node
<braunr> (if i'm right)
<ArneBab> …and so on, till noot starts the first
<ArneBab> root
<braunr> ?
<ArneBab> root starts /, right?
<braunr> no
<braunr> gnumach starts /
<ArneBab> ah, right
<braunr> gnumach starts somefs.static
<braunr> which attaches at /
<braunr> and runs with root privileges
<braunr> keep in mind that unix permissions are implemented as capabilities
on the hurd
<ArneBab> → root has it / it's root
<braunr> the rights you have aren't limited to those permissions
<ArneBab> jepp
<braunr> and it's not "until"
<ArneBab> so why should I not access a translator run by someone else? I
just don't want to do any active command (recurse)… hm… can a translator
turn a read request into a write?
<braunr> that's the only problem
<ArneBab> program with my rights wants to read, but the translator makes it
write instead?
<braunr> no
<braunr> a translator can do pretty much anything with your request
<ArneBab> with my rights?
<braunr> no
<braunr> the most obvious example of DoS is simply not answering
<braunr> your process hangs
<braunr> considering some file system accesses, a translator could return
inconsistent data
<ArneBab> so if the translator tries to make me write instead of read, it
can do so only when the owner of the translaton can write to the file in
<braunr> a well written application shouldn't have too much trouble dealing
with it but some aren't that well written
<braunr> this has *nothing* to do with read/write permissions
<braunr> you should read the critique :p
<ArneBab> ln -s /home/you /home/me → "why don't you look into my home?"
<ArneBab> read it again, that is :)
<ArneBab> (has been some time since I read it)
<antrik> braunr: you just described the auth mechanism ;-)
<antrik> ArneBab: symlinks can do considerably less than translators; and
even these caused a lot of trouble when introduced (and still cause
<antrik> we can't make every application aware of translators
<antrik> indeed I believe we can a avoid many problems by presenting
various translators as symlinks -- but this is not approriate for all
<antrik> it is something the translator itself decides, so it's not helpful
to solve security issues at all
<antrik> and as braunr already pointed out, this wouldn't help with DoS
Linux kernel, Symlink/Hardlink Attack
Even though not directly comparable, the issues described at Symlink Protection and Hardlink Protection do bear some similarity with the issue we're discussing here.
Likewise, Kees Cook, fs: symlink restrictions on sticky directories, 2011-11-18. 2011-12-06 update. Jake Edge, Fixing the symlink race problem, 2011-12-14.
IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-08-31
<antrik> I don't see any problems with following only translators of
trusted users
<youpi> where to store the list of trusted users?
<youpi> is there a way to access the underlying node, which for /dev
entries belongs to root?
<ArneBab> youpi: why a list of trusted users? Does it not suffice to
require /hurd/trust set by root or ourselves?
<youpi> ArneBab: just because that's what antrik suggests, so I ask him for
more details
<ArneBab> ah, ok
<antrik> youpi: probably make them members of a group
<antrik> of course that doesn't allow normal users to add their own trusted
users... but that's not the only limitation of the user-based
authentication mechanism, so I wouldn't consider that an extra problem
<antrik> ArneBab: we can't set a translator on top of another user's
translator in general
<antrik> root could, but that's not very flexible...
<antrik> the group-based solution seems more useful to me
<ArneBab> antrik: why can't we?
<antrik> also note that you can't set passive translators on top of other
<antrik> ArneBab: because we can only set translators on our own nodes
<ArneBab> active ones, too?
<antrik> yes
<ArneBab> antrik: I always thought I could…
<ArneBab> but did not test it
<ArneBab> antrik: so I need a subhurd to change nodes which do not belong
to me?
* ArneBab in that case finally understands why you like subhurds so much:
That should be my normal right
<antrik> it should be your normal right to change stuff not belonging to
you? that's an odd world view :-)
<antrik> subhurds don't really have anything to do with it
<ArneBab> change it in a way that only I see the changes
<antrik> you need local namespaces to allow making local modifications to
global resources
<youpi> it should be one's normal right to change the view one has of it
<antrik> we discussed that once actually I believe...
<antrik> err... private namespaces I mean
IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-09-10:
<cjuner_> I am rereading Neal Walfield's and Marcus Brinkman's critique of
the hurd on mach. One of the arguments is that a file system may be
malicious (by DoS its clients with infinitely deep directory
hierarchies). Is there an answer to that that does not require programs
to be programmed defensively against such possibilities?
IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-09-14:
<antrik> cjuner: regarding malicious filesystems: the answer is to do
exactly the same as FUSE on Linux: don't follow translators set up by
untrusted users by default
<cjuner> antrik, but are legacy programs somehow protected? What about
executing `find`? Or is GNU's find somehow protected from that?
<antrik> cjuner: I'm talking about a global policy
<cjuner> antrik, and who would implement that policy?
<antrik> cjuner: either glibc or the parent translators
Continued discussion about pagers.
IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2013-02-24
<braunr> on a more general topic, i've been thinking about client and
server trust
<braunr> there have been many talkbs about it regarding l4/coyotos/hurdng
<youpi> I generally think the client can trust the server
<braunr> and passing the select timeout to servers corroborates this
<youpi> because it's either root, or it's the same user
<braunr> hum yes, but that's not exactly my question, you'll see
<braunr> there is one feature the hurd has, and i'm not sure we should have
it considering what it requires
<braunr> the feature is that clients can, at any time, "break" from a
<youpi> "break" ?
<braunr> the current implementation is to cancel the current RPC after 3
seconds without a reply when the user sends SIGINT
<braunr> the problem is that, moving to a complete migrating thread model
would make that impossible (or very complicated to do right)
<braunr> would it be ok to remove this feature ?
<youpi> well, we need to have SIGINT working, don't we?
<braunr> obviously
<braunr> but that's not what the feature is meant to do
<braunr> it allows clients to recover from a server that misbehaves and
doesn't return
<youpi> then I don't understand in enough details what you mean :)
<braunr> imagine a buggy driver in linux that gets into an uninterruptible
<braunr> you can't even kill your process
<braunr> that's what the feature is meant to solve
<youpi> that's a quite useful thing
<youpi> e.g. stuck nfs etc., it's useful to be able to recover from that
<braunr> forbidding uninterruptible sleeps would also be a solution, but
then it means relying on servers acting right
<braunr> which is why i mention we usually trust servers
<youpi> well, there is "trust" and "trust" :)
<youpi> i.e. security-wise and robustness-wise
<youpi> I meant clients can usually trust servers security-wise
<braunr> my current idea for x15 is to forbid this kind of breaking, but
also forbid uninterruptible sleeps
<youpi> robustness-wise, I'd say no
<braunr> this way, sending a signal directly reaches the server, which is
trusted to return right away (well, conforming to the handling behaviour)
<braunr> so yes, buggy servers would prevent that, but on the other hand,
stuck nfs wouldn't
<youpi> provided the nfs implementation is not bogus
<braunr> yes
<youpi> I'd tend to agree, but would rather see this discussed on the list
<braunr> yes
<braunr> actually, it wouldn't be that hard to keep the current behaviour,
since i won't implement true migrating threads
<braunr> but it means retaining some issues we have (most importantely,
denial of service)
<braunr> -e
<braunr> what i want to avoid is
<youpi> for non-trusted servers, we could have a safety wrapper
<youpi> which we trust and does things carefully when talking with the
non-trusted server
<braunr> what would a non trusted server be ?
<youpi> whatever is neither root nor me
<youpi> e.g. nobody-provided /ftp:, or $HOME of another user, etc.
<braunr> i'd argue we don't talk to non trusted servers at all, period
<youpi> users won't like it :)
<braunr> and i'd extend root to a system provided list
<youpi> actually the nobody /ftp: case is important
<braunr> users should be able to create their own list of trusted users
<youpi> it's also the nobody /dev/null case
<youpi> atm it's root
<braunr> yes
<braunr> i see the point
<braunr> i'm just saying the idea of "using non-trusted server" doesn't
make sense
<youpi> actually running /ftp: under nobody is dangerous
<youpi> since if you're running as nobody (because you broke into the
system or whatever), then you can poke with nobody-provided servers
<braunr> yes
<youpi> so we'd rather have really-nobody processes
<braunr> taht's an already existing problem
<youpi> which can't be poked into
<youpi> (and thus can't poke into each other)
<braunr> or a separate user for each
<youpi> that'd be difficult
<braunr> or separate tokens, it's not important
<youpi> for /ftp:/ftp.debian.org used by someone, and /ftp:/ftp.foo.org
used by someone else
<braunr> what i mean is that, by talking to a server, a client implicitely
trusts it
<braunr> youpi: wouldn't that just be the same "ftp" user ?
<youpi> ideally, a carefully-crafted client could avoid having to trust it
<braunr> really ?
<youpi> braunr: that's the problem: then each ftpfs can poke on each other
<braunr> well, each global one
<youpi> there's the daemon-sharing issue too, yes
<braunr> i wasn't thinking about ftpfs, but rather the "system" pfinet for
<youpi> like /dev/null is shared
<braunr> when you say root or me, it's "system" or me
<braunr> by default, users trust their system
<braunr> they don't trust other users
<youpi> avoid having to trust it: yes, by using timeouts etc.
<braunr> that's clearly not enough
<youpi> why?
<braunr> shapiro described this in a mail but i can't find it right now
<youpi> I wouldn't like to have to trust ftpfs
<braunr> well time is one thing, data provided for example is another
<braunr> well, you do
<youpi> who knows what bug ftpfs has
<youpi> ideally I would be able not to have to
<youpi> braunr: you can check data
<braunr> i don't think that ideal is possible
<braunr> it you set a ftp translator with a user account, you give it the
<youpi> which password?
<braunr> the account password
<youpi> which account?
<braunr> "a user account"
<braunr> i.e. not anonymoius
<youpi> ah
<youpi> well, sure, you have to give that to ftpfs
<youpi> I mean the ftp server might be malicious or whatever
<youpi> and trigger a bug in ftpfs
<braunr> yes
<youpi> so I don't want to have to trust ftpfs
<braunr> what would that mean in practice ?
<youpi> have a trusted translation layer which papers over it, checking
timeouts & data
<braunr> how do you check data ?
<youpi> by knowing the protocol
<braunr> ?
<braunr> can you give a quick example ?
<youpi> well, which data check do you need?
<youpi> (it's you who mentioned data issues :) )
<braunr> i don't know what you mean by that so, choose as you see fit
<braunr> well the password one for example
<braunr> i was merely saying that, buy using an application, be it a
regular one or a translator, you automatically trust it
<youpi> you mean the ftp user password ?
<braunr> it becomes part of your tcb
<youpi> of course you have to provide it to ftpfs
<youpi> that's not a problem
<youpi> yes, but it's not because you connect to an http website that you
trust the webserver on the other end
<youpi> your web browser does checking for you
<braunr> when the protocol allows it
<braunr> (in this case, i'm thinking assymmetrical cryptography)
<youpi> in which case example doesn't it ?
<youpi> it seems we're not talking about the same kind of issue, thus not
understanding each other
<braunr> indeed
<youpi> by "trusting", I don't mean "be sure that it's the right server at
the other end"
<braunr> my point is that not trusting a server is impossible
<youpi> I mean "it behaves correectly"
<braunr> yes
<braunr> it may not behave correctly, and we might not know it
<youpi> as long as it doesn't make the program crash, that's fine
<youpi> that's what I mean
<braunr> that's where the difference is
<youpi> but giving the password is not my concern here
<youpi> and giving the password is a matter of cryptography, etc. yes, but
that's completely not my point
<braunr> i'm concerned about absolute correct behaviour
<braunr> hm
<braunr> no actually i was
<braunr> but not any more, the discussion has shifted back to the timeout
<braunr> ah no, i remember
<braunr> we talked about which servers to trust
<braunr> and how to alter communication accordingly
<braunr> and my point was that altering communication shouldn't be done, we
either trust the server, and talk to it, or we don't, and we stay away
<braunr> the wrapper would help for this specific blocking issue, yes
<youpi> I don't agree on this
<youpi> let me take a way more simple example
<youpi> a server that provides data through io_read
<youpi> I don't want to trust it because it's provided by some joe user
<youpi> but I still want to have a look at the data that it produces
<youpi> I'm fine that the data may be completely non-sense, that's not a
<youpi> what is a problem, however, is if the hexdump program I've run over
it can't be ^C-ed
<braunr> yes, that's the specific issue i mentioned
<youpi> and for that, a mere trusted intermediate could be enough
<braunr> iirc, there is a firmlink-related issue
<youpi> ?
<youpi> I'm not able to guess what conclusion you are drawing here :)
<braunr> don't talk to untrusted servers
<youpi> or be careful
<youpi> the rm -fr /tmp being aabout being careful actually
<braunr> right
<braunr> i have a very unix-centric view for my system actually
<braunr> i think posix compatibility is very important for me
<braunr> more than it seems to have been in the past when the hurd was
<braunr> to* me
<braunr> so i don't trust tools to be careful
<youpi> that's why a wrapping translator could make it back to posix
<braunr> but i see what you mean
<youpi> being careful for the tools
<braunr> hum, a wrapping _translator_ ?
<youpi> yes, similar to remap and fakeroot
remap root translator, fakeroot.
<braunr> ok
<youpi> you'd tell it "for this path, please be careful for my tools"
<braunr> ok so
<braunr> it would basically still end up trusting system or me
<braunr> but you'd add this wrapper to the system
<youpi> "it" ?
<braunr> the situation
<braunr> i don't know :)
<braunr> the implementation, whatever
<youpi> the shell I'm running, you mean
<braunr> and it would be the job of this translator to shield the user
<youpi> yes
<braunr> that's a good idea, yes
<youpi> it could reduce the allowed RPC set to what it knows to check
<braunr> how would the shell use it ?
<braunr> would it "shadow" / ?
<youpi> yes
<braunr> ok


text:
Various members of Maroon 5, Gomez, Phantom Planet and a few other bands have formed a 'supergroup' of massive proportions: there are 14 of them and they're calling themselves Operation Aloha.
The 14-strong crew took 30 days out of their busy touring schedules and album commitments to convene on the island of Maui and record an album inspired by the "tranquillity, freedom and spirit of Hawaii." They lived in tree houses during their stay. Probably to instil this inspiration into their psyches even further.
A self-titled album is planned for a 12 May release. Here's Operation Aloha's membership in full:
James Valentine (Maroon 5)
Jesse Carmichael (Maroon 5)
Dajon Everett (Gomez)
Ian Ball (Gomez)
Olly Peacock (Gomez)
Sam Farrar (Phantom Planet)
Christopher Wray-McCann (Photographer)
Charles Danek
Fil Krohnengold (All Spots To Black)
Mathew Chaney
Maureen Wray-McCann
Nadav Kahn (Kahn Brothers)
Saam Gabbay
Will Nash
(Via: NME)


text:
Samantha Pauly Reveals Her Favorite Thing About Playing Katherine Howard in <Broadway's Six
Six star Samantha Pauly was mere hours away from her first Broadway opening night when she got the news that Broadway would be shutting down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now three months into quarantine, Pauly reflected on her history with the show and shared her favorite moments on a recent episode of Broadway.com's #LiveatFive: Home Edition. "I do think I made my Broadway debut," she said to Paul Wontorek. "I know some people don't count it until opening night, but I had a very emotional first preview because the audience was so wild and crazy. That, to me, was the start. When we didn't have our big opening and the party it was sad, but it wasn't as disappointing because in my mind I had made my Broadway debut and been doing it for a month. It's going to be OK, we'll be back."
It's still uncertain when Broadway curtains will rise again, but Pauly is more than ready to show off her opening night look. "I didn't cry when I picked out my own wedding dress, but I did cry when I saw this outfit," she said. "I had my friend Bryce Turgeon, who goes by the name Florence D'Lee for his designs, give me a custom-made look. He does a lot of designs for the queens on RuPaul's Drag Race, and I asked him if he would make me something Tudor-inspired. When I showed up to his apartment to try it on, I just about had a full on breakdown because it's so beautiful."
Pauly has been part of the Six queendom as Katherine Howard since its U.S. premiere at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. She also stayed with the production for its runs at the Citadel and Ordway Theatres, but took some time away from the show to go to London to star as Eva Peron in the Jamie Lloyd-directed Evita at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. "It was a very stripped-away version where we really just focused on the story," Pauly said. "It was very raw and dirty. I ended the show every night in a full-on, screaming breakdown.
Throughout her time as Katherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, Pauly has been encouraged by the show's creators, Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow, to make the character her own. "Lucy and Toby were very adamant about all of us bringing our own personality to the character," she said. "Originally I was trying to play her very sexy and cool and kind of intense. Lucy was like, 'Why don't you do Katherine Howard like how you are in rehearsal—weird and screaming all the time and being a total goofball?' One of the things that I really love about [the character] now is that she's a culmination of poking fun at how sexy she is but also being ridiculous all the time. It's my favorite thing about her."
Hear Pauly talk about which other queen she would like to be for a day and more in the full episode below!


text:
Could hackers set fire to your Apple battery with a virus? Some recent news stories seem to suggest that they might.
One uncompromising headline certainly implies that battery-based malware – whether inferno-related or not – is an inevitability, trumpeting proudly that "Apple laptop batteries are the new attack vector."
That remains to be seen, as does reverse-engineering maestro Charlie Miller's talk at the upcoming Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, where the paper which spurred these headlines will be presented.
You've probably noticed that modern operating systems can tell you an awful lot about your battery, including its rated power, its current charge, how fast it's charging, and more.
This is because the battery pack includes not just Lithium-based power cells, but also an embedded processor with its own firmware.
Miller spent some time – and quite a bit of his own money on "bricked" batteries, too! – working out how Apple Macbooks interact with their power packs, reverse engineering the battery firmware and working out how to modify it. According to reports, Miller was inspired to do this following an Apple software update in 2009 in which Apple tweaked its own battery firmware, thus helping him zoom in on the code which interacted with the battery device.
It turns out that the firmware is password protected, but the passwords (like the iPhone's root password) are the same across all Apple hardware. This helps prevent inadvertent modification, but unsurprisingly doesn't protect against a malicious attacker with administrative access.
Of course, the issue of malware in field-updatable firmware is not new. In the late 1990s, Taiwanese student Chen Ing Hau released the CIH, or Chernobyl, virus which included a warhead which tried to reflash your BIOS on 26 April.
If you had the right – or wrong – sort of BIOS chip, your BIOS was toast. On the next reboot, your PC would hang when it executed just its second instruction after power-up. So you couldn't even get far enough to run an emergency BIOS reflashing utility.
Surprisingly, at least in my opinion, no malware ever appeared in the wild to do more than simply "brick" an affected PC's BIOS, even though most personal computer BIOSes still aren't protected with any sort of hardware safety interlock.
A hardware interlock wouldn't prevent an attack against your BIOS, or against your battery. But it would certainly help prevent unexpected modification of system firmwares if all firmware updates required the user to hold down a button-operated switch, and if attempts to write to the firmware were to raise an alarm whenever the switch was not depressed.
So, are Apple laptop batteries the new attack vector? Could a virus set your beloved Macbook on fire?
The answer to the first question is: no more so that any other hardware in your system with field-updatable firmware. That includes the motherboard itself, your wireless card, your 3G modem, network card, graphics device, storage devices and much more. Including, of course, the battery pack. And – as Apple fans reading this article will be happy to note – the risk is not unique to Apple, though Charlie Miller's paper is.
The answer to the second question seems to be: not if the battery is correctly manufactured. As Andy Greenberg points out on Forbes.com, "the batteries [Miller] examined have other safeguards against explosions: fuses that contain an alloy that melts at high temperatures to break the circuit and prevent further charging."
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This fine sashiko thread is amazing value, with 370m on each skein. Use if doubled or singly for finer details. Ideal for hitomezashi sashiko, boro rag patchwork and for use on finer fabrics where medium sashiko threads may feel too thick. I have used it a lot for big stitch hand quilting and it is perfect - strong and economical. It is the same thread used by Yuza Sashiko Guild. It is a 4-ply thread.
This listing is for one skein of #18 bubblegum pink. The second photo shows it next to #7 lilac and #6 aubergine purple
Suitable for any sashiko needles.
100% cotton.
Made in Japan
#18 fine sashiko thread 370m skein bubblegum pink
Sashiko threads skeins have to be opened out before use. You will find all the thread is tied together at one point. Cut through the skein at the knot, so all the threads are cut (you'll find these are the ideal length for stitching doubled). Now plait the thread loosely. Pull out each thread as you need it from the loop end of the plait, not the 'fringed' end. This saves time trying to wind the thread into a ball and keeps it tidy. As you remove threads and the plait becomes looser, you can replait the skein.


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Telecom is set to acquire Auckland-based Cloud services provider Appserv, following completion of conditions in the agreement, in early July this year.
Telecom CEO Simon Moutter said that the acquisition of Appserv provides a major new piece in the Cloud jigsaw.
"We see this as a strategic business move giving the Telecom group a very strong New Zealand Cloud services portfolio. The acquisition of Appserv is an excellent complement to the purchase in 2013 of Revera and the ongoing investment we are making in data centres."
He added that the Appserv acquisition places Telecom in a good position to help NZ businesses move to cloud computing, as the firm prepares to change its name to Spark in August this year.
Appserv provides SaaS, desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) and IT-as-a-service offerings, with customers across New Zealand.
Appserv MD Graham Clarke, said "We're pleased to combine the leading Cloud solutions capability of Appserv with the ambition and reach of the Telecom Group. We're ambitious ourselves, and we see a perfect fit with our aspirations and how Telecom intends to transform itself to Spark and help more New Zealand businesses grow."
Moutter said, "Revera is a Cloud computing specialist that provides Cloud solutions predominantly for government and corporates, while Appserv brings specialist Cloud DaaS solutions for a range of business sizes, particularly small to medium sized.
"It's a powerful combination that adds to our existing strengths in Cloud infrastructure, mobility, managed ICT and platform as a service.
"We're confident that the addition of Appserv to the group portfolio gives us the ability to meet the needs of even more customers," said Moutter.
According to Moutter, Gen-i and Revera continues to grow with new or imminent data centre business totalling more than 250 racks since the start of 2014.
"Our investment in data centres has continued. In Wellington, a new Revera centre opened last year that is now 100 per cent allocated, with a third centre due to open in October. In Christchurch, a new green-fields centre opened in August and is already over 30 per cent full. In Auckland, a new high resiliency data centre in Takanini is due to open in October, with 38 per cent of capacity already allocated," said Moutter.


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Best-selling author Vince Flynn, who wrote the Mitch Rapp counterterrorism thriller series and sold more than 15 million books in the U.S. alone, died Wednesday in Minnesota after a more than two-year battle with prostate cancer, according to friends and his publisher. He was 47.
Flynn was supporting himself by bartending when he self-published his first novel, "Term Limits," in 1997 after getting more than 60 rejection letters. After it became a local best-seller, Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint, signed him to a two-book deal — and "Term Limits" became a New York Times best-seller in paperback.
The St. Paul-based author also sold millions of books in the international market and averaged about a book a year, most of them focused on Rapp, a CIA counterterrorism operative. His 14th novel, "The Last Man," was published last year.
"As good as Vince was on the page — and he gave millions of readers countless hours of pleasure — he was even more engaging in person," said Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of his publisher, Simon & Schuster. "Yes, we will miss the Mitch Rapp stories that are classic modern thrillers, but we will miss Vince even more."
Flynn died at a hospital in St. Paul, surrounded by about 35 relatives and friends who prayed the Rosary, said longtime family friend Kathy Schneeman. She said his deep Catholic faith was an important part of his character.
"That's what he would have liked. He talks about his faith just as much as he would talk about politics and current events with our group of friends," Schneeman said.
Flynn was born to an Irish Catholic family in St. Paul, the fifth of seven children. After graduating with an economics degree from the University of St. Thomas in 1988, he went to work as an account and sales marketing specialist with Kraft General Foods. That marketing background later came in handy as he promoted "Term Limits."
Wanting a new challenge, he quit Kraft in 1990 when he landed an aviation candidate slot with the Marine Corps, but he was later disqualified due to seizures he suffered following a childhood car accident. Thwarted from becoming a military aviator, he got the idea of writing thrillers.
"If (Tom) Clancy could do it, why can't I?" Flynn said in a 2005 interview with The Associated Press.
He went to work for the Twin Cities based commercial real estate company United Properties and started working on a book idea in his spare time. Two years later, he quit so he could devote more time to writing and moved to Colorado. He began working on what became "Term Limits," a story about assassins who targeted fat-cat congressmen.
Flynn was diagnosed with stage three metastatic prostate cancer in November 2010. The fatigue from his radiation treatments eventually made it difficult to focus on writing for more than an hour or two, and in October 2011, he reluctantly postponed publication for several months of his 13th book, "Kill Shot," which followed Rapp's adventures as he pursued those responsible for the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
Flynn is survived by his wife, Lysa Flynn, and three children.


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Forgetting, for the moment, the advantages afforded by more RAM being addressable, what performance gains are typical with say, vista 64 over vista 32?
Do all games perform better, or does it vary widely? Is there a list somewhere of games or game engines that perform a lot better in 64?
Update: Thanks for responses so far.
I guess I'd assumed that by now, most of the major game engines (Unreal, Source, Cryengine, etc) had special versions, not only compiled as 64bit executables but also modified to take advantage of the increased power (I'm imagining some lower-level 3d graphics math or physics or something being faster because of techniques that take advantage of the larger address space and/or any new instructions). Thus some games would have a significant boost in performance. Is this not the case?


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10 Shares Trading Near 52-Week Lows
LONDON -- Since the beginning of 2013, the FTSE 100 is up 6.5%. Not every share has joined the bull market, though. Here are the 10 largest FTSE 100 companies that are trading within 12% of their lowest price in a year. These shares could rise fast if they can demonstrate an improvement in their fortunes. These five stood out in particular.
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell is one of the FTSE 100's true titan companies. The company has more than a century of history behind it, operates in 90 countries around the world and employs 90,000 people. So famous around the world, Shell even makes it into a gag in the Marilyn Monroe film "Some Like it Hot."
Shell is synonymous with financial strength. The shareholder dividend has not been cut since the end of the Second World War. In 2013, Shell is expected to pay out more in shareholder dividends than any other company in the FTSE 100.
Shell is forecast to make $4.32 per share in 2013, paying a dividend of $1.87. That equates to a 2013 price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 8, with a forecast yield of 5.4%.
Imperial Tobacco
In the last five years, Imperial Tobacco has increased its dividend by an average of 11.9% per year. In that time, earnings per share (EPS) has increased by an average of 10.7% a year.
Imperial has increased shareholder value by leveraging its brands (Davidoff, Gauloises, West) and its dedicated (addicted) customer base. It is surprising, therefore, to see the shares of a successful company trading within 3% of their low for the year.
The shares now trade on an undemanding valuation. According to my figures, Imperial Tobacco is on a 2013 P/E of 10.8, falling to 10 for 2014. The dividend is forecast to rise 9.5% for the year, meaning that the shares come with an expected yield of 5%.
Wm. Morrison Supermarkets
Morrisons has had a rotten 12 months. In the past year, the shares have fallen 10.5% to the kind of levels not seen since the worst of the financial crisis. According to industry surveys, Morrisons has been losing market share. In an industry where buying power and economies of scale are so important, this is a worrying development.
Unlike rivals Tesco and Sainsbury's, Morrisons has no real online or convenience offering. Analysts fear that this has held back sales growth at the company. In the last year, forecasts for Morrisons' 2013 profits have fallen 8%.
EPS is forecast to remain broadly unchanged in 2013 and 2014. The dividend is expected to continue rising, putting the shares on a 2013 yield of 4.6%, rising to 4.9% for 2014.
Shares in pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline trade 10.5% above a low for the year. They are also just 3% off a 52-week high. This shows just how stable perceptions of the company are.
Along with a portfolio of drugs, Glaxo also owns some consumer brands such as Lucozade and Ribena. The company recently announced that it would be reviewing the future of these drinks brands. This has led to speculation that Glaxo may be preparing to sell. It would likely receive the best part of a billion pounds for this part of its business.
Glaxo is expected to increase its dividend this year and next. That puts the shares on a prospective yield for 2014 of 5.7%. The 2013 P/E is 12.5, falling to 11.4 times the 2014 earnings forecast.
SSE (previously Scottish and Southern Energy) epitomizes what investors expect from utility companies. In the last five years, its dividend has increased by an average of 7.8% per year. The company has been increasing its dividend to shareholders since its founding in 1998.
Shares in SSE fell recently on the announcement that CEO Ian Marchant will be stepping down in July after 10 years in the role. This coincided with the shares going ex-dividend. SSE has decided that when Marchant departs, his current deputy will step into the hot seat.
SSE shares are expected to yield 6% in 2013, rising to 6.2% in 2014. The recent share price decline in 2013 may be an opportunity to climb aboard.
However, SSE's prospects and valuation were not attractive enough to qualify the share for this exclusive in-depth report, which is devoted instead to another high-income opportunity within the FTSE 100. In fact, this alternative opportunity offers a 5.7% income, might be worth 850 pence vs. around 700 pence now -- and has just been declared the "Motley Fool's Top Income Share for 2013." Simply click here to download the report -- it's 100% free.
The article 10 Shares Trading Near 52-Week Lows originally appeared on Fool.com.
David O'Hara does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares in Tesco and recommends GlaxoSmithKline. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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In particular, you will write an assembly language program that generates a tree-recursive process for solving a classic mathematical recreation, the ``Towers of Hanoi'' puzzle. This puzzle has three pegs, numbered as pegs 1, 2, and 3, and n disks, labeled as disk 1 through disk n. (The number n can vary; typical values might be in the range from 1 to 8.) Disk 1 is smaller than disk 2, which is in turn smaller than disk 3, and so forth, with disk n being the largest. Initially all the disks are on peg 1, starting with disk n on the bottom, disk n-1 on top of that, and so forth, up to disk 1 on the top. The goal is to move all the disks to peg 2. You may only move one disk at a time: the top disk from any of the three pegs onto the top of either of the other two pegs. Moreover, there is a constraint: you must not place a larger disk on top of a smaller.
Your lab write up can be short and sweet, but it should be English. You should communicate everything you did at some level of detail, but for the uninteresting parts, you can summarize in broad outline, while for the more interesting parts, you can go into detail. Specific details I will expect to see are the program you are asked to write and test data and results from that program.
You will again use Xspim, as in lab 1.
The following is a Scheme version of the program you need to write; it prompts for and reads in n and then prints out a list of the necessary disk movements:
(define main (lambda () (display "Enter number of disks> ") (let ((n (read))) (hanoi n 1 2 3)))) (define hanoi ;move n smallest disks from start to finish using extra (lambda (n start finish extra) (if (= n 0) 'done (begin (hanoi (- n 1) start extra finish) (display "Move disk ") (display n) (display " from peg ") (display start) (display " to peg ") (display finish) (display ".") (newline) (hanoi (- n 1) extra finish start)))))
To get the strings displayed, see page A-48; the newline at the end of
each line can be accommodated by using a \n
(newline) character
at the end of the last string, i.e.:
.asciiz ".\n"would be the string to print out last, containing both the period and the newline.
As an alternative to the above Scheme version here is a C version. It
presumes that there are C library procedures
, print_int
, and
, corresponding with the SPIM system calls:
/* move n smallest disks from start to finish using extra */ void hanoi(int n, int start, int finish, int extra){ if(n != 0){ hanoi(n-1, start, extra, finish); print_string("Move disk "); print_int(n); print_string(" from peg "); print_int(start); print_string(" to peg "); print_int(finish); print_string(".\n"); hanoi(n-1, extra, finish, start); } } main(){ int n; print_string("Enter number of disks> "); n = read_int(); hanoi(n, 1, 2, 3); return 0; }
This lab is essentially exercise A.10.
Instructor: Max Hailperin


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{A Cute, Travel-Themed Kate Spade Ad}
This year has been crazy busy and at times, rather hectic, so now that we are more than half way through 2011, I am desperately craving a weekend getaway! I am still hoping for a trip back to London or Spain in the fall in honor of my 30th birthday, but I would love to get away, if only for a couple of nights before then. Sometimes, we just need a change of scenery and a break from our day to day responsibilities in order to reboot and recharge. I always feel so refreshed and energized creatively after a vacation.
{The Posh Rooftop at the London West Hollywood Hotel}
Luckily, American Express has given me 150,000 Membership Rewards Points and the opportunity to craft my own, little weekend getaway using those points! Membership Rewards can be redeemed for so many things, the points never expire, and anyone with an American Express card is eligible for the program. The points can be applied towards airfare on 20 major airlines, hotel stays, cruise and rail tickets, vacation packages, and car rentals. With so many options, I need your help in picking a vacation. I can transfer points to fly with Continental Airlines, which is my preferred airline. It will take anywhere from 25,000-50,000 points each for airfare for my husband and I, depending on the flights we select. The remaining balance will be used for a hotel stay which starts around 18,000 points per night, so we can definitely craft a nice, long weekend.
{The Famous "Vegas Strip"}
While the possibilities are endless, we've narrowed our getaway down to three options. Our first option is Southern California- either Los Angeles or Orange County. I've been to Los Angeles a lot while working on High Gloss, but I do love it and I love Newport Beach and Laguna Beach even more. My husband has never been there and I'd love to experience it with him. It might be nice to enjoy the weather and a relatively laidback trip. Our second option is to go to Las Vegas. Neither of us has ever really had a big interest in going since we're not gamblers or big club-goers, but we're thinking it would be a lot of fun to go for a couple of days, enjoy some of the great restaurants and take in a few shows. Lastly, we're considering Chicago, another city we haven't yet visited. We've heard amazing things about how beautiful Chicago is and about it's amazing food scene.
{Chicago's Beautiful Skyline}
I would really appreciate your help in choosing a destination for our American Express Membership Rewards weekend getaway. Is there anything in particular that you would recommend about any one of these destinations? Would you steer me in any particular direction? I can't wait to hear your feedback and am so excited to finally get away for a few days!


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With Dirce in one boat conveyed!
Or Charon, seeing, may forget
That he is old and she a shade.
Lalage's shadow moves in the fresco's knees
She is blotted with Dirce's shadow
dawn stands there fixed and unmoving
................only we two have moved.
Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864): Dirce
Ezra Pound (1885-1972): from Canto L
Dirce Beauty (Colobura dirce), Botanischer Garten, Munich: photo by Richard Bartz, 2010
Colobura dirce, Jardin Botanico del Quindio: photo by Caya!!, 2007


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This article is more than 1 year old
Pentagon confirms attack breached classified network
'Network administrator's worst fear'
The Pentagon has opened the kimono on what it described as the "most significant breach of US military computers ever," in which a flash drive in 2008 was used to infect large numbers of computers, including those used by the Central Command overseeing combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When the device was plugged into a military laptop located on an undisclosed base in the Middle East, malicious code soon linked highly sensitive machines to networks controlled by an unnamed foreign intelligence agency, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III wrote in the first official account of the episode.
"That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control," he wrote in an article to be published Wednesday, according to The Washington Post.
"It was a network administrator's worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary."
Military officials responded with a counter attack known as Operation Buckshot Yankee, which Lynn characterized as a turning point in the Pentagon's computer defense strategy. Among the steps initially taken was the banning of USB devices by the Defense Department, a curb that has since been modified slightly.
The account, included in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, comes almost two years after The Los Angeles Times reported an unofficial account of the incident, that claimed it most likely originated in Russia. Wednesday's article signals attempts by the Pentagon to raise awareness to the growing vulnerability of the US military to computer-based attacks, which often allow adversaries with modest means to inflict disproportionate damage.
"A dozen determined computer programmers can, if they find a vulnerability to exploit, threaten the United States's global logistics network, steal its operational plans, blind its intelligence capabilities or hinder its ability to deliver weapons on target," Lynn wrote.
Last month, a retired US general made many of the same points, comparing the network world to the highly vulnerable North German plain that has been invaded repeatedly over the past several centuries.
More coverage from The New York Times is here. Wired.com has an article here saying some Defense Department insiders doubt the attack was the work of a hostile government. ®


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Don't be a moron-take the perches off your hummingbird feeder! They can hover, and look a lot cooler in motion!
Our only year around resident hummingbird is the Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna). The male, although small, has a beautiful bright pink iridescent forehead and throat. They buzz around the Arboretum feeding on flower nectar and are often seen and heard carrying out their mating ritual. The male slowly flies high up ~60 feet into the air, gives a sharp high "pik" note, and then dives down with incredible speed usually straight down and only leveling off 1-3 feet in the air only to repeat the cycle again. You ought to feel lucky if you are a Davis resident that has witnessed this amazing display of hummingbird love.
Allen's and Rufous hummingbirds can be seen one week out of the year in spring as they come down from Alaska to head to Mexico. Rufous breeds in Alaska with 24 hour light, and they winter in Mexico.


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Bamboo Luxury Jacquard Blanket (Bird / Moon)
Click Here for more choices from Bamboo Bebe collection
For mobile view, Add To Cart blue button is at the bottom of your mobile screen.
Kindly check the size chart/guide before making a purchase, as certain products may have smaller cutting.
Free Shipping
Enjoy our free shipping with only minimum purchase of RM120 (WM)/ RM300 (EM) / S$100 (Singapore)
Note that for non-gift orders above RM120 will be in white kraft box, no ribbons and not bubblewrapped. Please insert a note it is a gift so we will wrap with ribbons and bubble wrap the box.
Free Giftbox and card
Every order below RM120 will be delivered in our recycled canvas bag in mailer bag, but you can opt for our lovely specially designed eco-friendly kraft box at RM5 (free of charge for orders above RM120) which is perfect for gifting, and we provide free greeting cards! Just let us know your love messages at check-out page.
If you would like us to send a better giftbox, we have our premium magnetic hardcover giftboxes optional at RM 20 each (you can add it to cart from the product list) or it will be free of charge at check-out when it is your 1st purchase of RM 350 and above (or RM500 for subsequent purchase)


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Yesterday we walked, over the hill and far away to the rocks where the fox once was. In the heather there were frost flowers in shadow pools untouched by winter sun.
We sat, Robin and I, on the hill while the dogs spilled around us.
Today when I looked at the photos I took I laughed so much at Rosie doing her dangerous stunts with a small stick. She is beautiful.
Today I learned that a library in Torfaen near Pontypool want to use my dragon images to decorate their library, a new one that is opening soon, and I tried to settle to work, and move two tonnes of logs and find out how much I still have to do on The Cat and The Fiddle.


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A treatment that prevents premature births in single pregnancies may be ineffective in women expecting more than one child, a study has shown.
The study, led by a University of Edinburgh researcher, suggests an underlying difference between the way in which premature births occur in women with single and multiple pregnancies.
The findings published in the The Lancet could help inform improvements in treatment to prevent premature births in women expecting more than one child and help researchers understand how the process of premature labour may be different.
The study looked at nearly 500 women around the country expecting twins, which account for more than 98 per cent of multiple births in the UK.
Half of the women were given progesterone gel — a hormone which helps protect the lining of the womb — while the other half were given a dummy version. The treatment has been shown to reduce early births in women expecting one child considered at high risk of early labour, including those who had previously given birth prematurely.
However, researchers found that contrary to singleton pregnancies, the hormone gel did not reduce rates of premature births.
Professor Jane Norman, director of the Tommy's Centre for Maternal and Fetal Health Research at the University of Edinburgh, said: "While the study looked at twins, it suggests that the biological process of premature births in women with multiple births is different for that than in women expecting one child.
"Understanding the differences between what happens in premature births in singleton and multiple pregnancies can help us improve treatments and also address the higher incidence of premature labour in multiple pregnancies."
Professor Norman, who is also a consultant obstetrician at the Simpson's Centre for Reproductive Health at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, said that around 20 per cent of multiple pregnancies resulted in pre-term delivery before 34 weeks compared to two to three per cent of pregnancies for women expecting one child
Multiple pregnancies accounted for 1.6 per cent of all births in the UK in 2007, but rates of stillbirths and neonatal mortality are between three and eight times higher than in singleton pregnancies.


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What is the Affective Domain anyway?
This summary was compiled by Karin Kirk, SERC.
The affective domain is part of a system that was published in 1965 for identifying, understanding and addressing how people learn. Part of Bloom's Taxonomy, this classification of educational objectives includes the cognitive domain, the affective domain and the psychomotor domain.
The cognitive domain is organized in a hierarchy that begins with the straightforward acquisition of knowledge, followed by the more sophisticated cognitive tasks of comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
The psychomotor domain relates to the learning of physical movements. The members of the original committee did not write a book on about the psychomotor domain.
More information
- Learning Domains or Bloom's Taxonomy (more info)
- Benjamin Bloom publishes Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals (more info)
- Krathwohl's Taxonomy of Affective Domain
Definitions of the affective domain
The affective domain describes learning objectives that emphasize a feeling tone, an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection. Affective objectives vary from simple attention to selected phenomena to complex but internally consistent qualities of character and conscience. We found a large number of such objectives in the literature expressed as interests, attitudes, appreciations, values, and emotional sets or biases. [from Krathwohl et al, 1964 ]
Here are descriptions of each step in the taxonomy, starting at the most basic level. (From Krathwohl's Taxonomy of Affective Domain)
Receiving is being aware of or sensitive to the existence of certain ideas, material, or phenomena and being willing to tolerate them. Examples include: to differentiate, to accept, to listen (for), to respond to.
Responding is committed in some small measure to the ideas, materials, or phenomena involved by actively responding to them. Examples are: to comply with, to follow, to commend, to volunteer, to spend leisure time in, to acclaim.
Valuing is willing to be perceived by others as valuing certain ideas, materials, or phenomena. Examples include: to increase measured proficiency in, to relinquish, to subsidize, to support, to debate.
Organization is to relate the value to those already held and bring it into a harmonious and internally consistent philosophy. Examples are: to discuss, to theorize, to formulate, to balance, to examine.
Characterization by value or value set is to act consistently in accordance with the values he or she has internalized. Examples include: to revise, to require, to be rated high in the value, to avoid, to resist, to manage, to resolve.
What is the relevance of the affective domain in education?
If we are striving to apply the continuum of Krathwohl et al. to our teaching, then we are encouraging students to not just receive information at the bottom of the affective hierarchy. We'd like for them to respond to what they learn, to value it, to organize it and maybe even to characterize themselves as science students, science majors or scientists.
We are also interested in students' attitudes toward science, scientists, learning science and specific science topics. We want to find teaching methods that encourage students and draw them in. Affective topics in educational literature include attitudes, motivation, communication styles, classroom management styles, learning styles, use of technology in the classroom and nonverbal communication. It is also important not to turn students off by subtle actions or communications that go straight to the affective domain and prevent students from becoming engaged.
In the educational literature, nearly every author introduces their paper by stating that the affective domain is essential for learning, but it is the least studied, most often overlooked, the most nebulous and the hardest to evaluate of Bloom's three domains. In formal classroom teaching, the majority of the teacher's efforts typically go into the cognitive aspects of the teaching and learning and most of the classroom time is designed for cognitive outcomes. Similarly, evaluating cognitive learning is straightforward but assessing affective outcomes is difficult. Thus, there is significant value in realizing the potential to increase student learning by tapping into the affective domain. Similarly, students may experience affective roadblocks to learning that can neither be recognized nor solved when using a purely cognitive approach.
To learn more, proceed to Framework for the Affective Domain in Science Education


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Christmas may be over, but we still have a couple of cool holiday related hacks for you. One being [Alpay's] Twitter based interactive Christmas tree ornaments.
We tried to dig up some more information, but it thus far appears a laptop running Processing searches Twitter for specific Christmas related words (like 1337, that's Christmas-y), sends a buffer to one of three Arduinos which in turn light up a specific ornament. You can check out a live stream here.
For those wanting a bit more information on Arduino and controlling holiday lights, check out [Alpay's] GE health care version of Twitter lights, or our previous post on controlling Christmas trees, or you might even try [Michael's] $10 Walmart light controller.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Tool lets low-end PC crash much more powerful webserver
Denial-of-service attack targets SSL
Hackers have released software that they say allows a single computer to knock servers offline by targeting a well-documented flaw in secure sockets layer implementations.
A German group known as The Hacker's Choice released the tool on Monday, in part to bring attention to what they said were a series of long-running deficiencies in SSL, which websites use to prevent social security numbers and other sensitive data from being monitored as they travel between servers and end-user computers.
"We are hoping that the fishy security in SSL does not go unnoticed," an unnamed member of the group said in a blog post. "The industry should step in to fix the problem so that citizens are safe and secure again. SSL is using an aging method of protecting private data which is complex, unnecessary and not fit for the 21st century."
The THC-SSL-DOS tool allows a single computer with a modest internet connection to crash a much more powerful server with vastly more bandwidth, but only when the server supports what's known as SSL renegotiation, Monday's postings claimed. Renegotiation is used to establish a new secret key securing communications after an encrypted session has already commenced. Renegotiation was at the heart of a flaw in the SSL protocol discovered in 2009 that allowed attackers to inject text into encrypted traffic passing between two endpoints.
"Interesting here is that a security feature that was supposed to make SSL more secure makes it indeed more vulnerable to this attack," a member said.
The tool allows a single laptop with a standard DSL connection to take down an average webserver. Bringing down a larger server farm that makes use of an SSL load balancer required about 20 laptops and about 120Kbps of bandwidth. Even when websites don't support SSL renegotiation, they can still be toppled by THC-SSL-DOS, although the attack must be modified.
The tool is available as a Windows binary and Unix source code. ®


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